Relay node aggregation of data transfers in a wireless telecommunication system

ABSTRACT

A relay node for aggregating data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network includes a receiver configured to receive uplink signals from multiple terminals, each uplink signal including respective uplink data, a decoder operatively connected to the receiver and configured to decode the uplink signals to obtain the uplink data, a machine-readable storage medium operatively connected to the decoder and configured to store the uplink data, an encoder operatively connected to the machine-readable medium and configured to encode an aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data obtained from the uplink signals, and a transmitter configured to transmit an uplink transmission of the aggregate uplink signal to the base station.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The technology of the present disclosure relates generally to portableelectronic devices and transmission equipment operable in a wirelesscommunication network, and more particularly to systems and methods forrelay node aggregation of data transfers in a wireless telecommunicationnetwork.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Portable electronic devices that operate in a cellular network, such asmobile telephones and smartphones, tablet computers, cellular-connectedlaptop computers, and similar devices are ever increasing in popularity.In a typical wireless telecommunication network, terminals (also knownas mobile stations and/or user equipment (UE)) communicate via a radioaccess network (RAN) to one or more core networks. The RAN covers ageographical area which is divided into cell areas, with each cell areabeing served by a base station, e.g., a radio base station (RBS), whichin some networks may also be called, for example, NodeB in UMTS oreNodeB in LTE. A cell is a geographical area where radio coverage isprovided by the radio base station equipment at a base station site.Each cell is identified by an identity within the local radio area,which is broadcast in the cell. The base stations communicate over theair interface operating on radio frequencies with the terminals withinrange of the base stations.

In some RAN versions, several base stations are connected (e.g., bylandlines or microwave) to a controller node (such as a radio networkcontroller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC)) which supervisesand coordinates various activities of the base stations connectedthereto. The controller nodes are typically connected to one or morecore networks.

In one example, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) isa wireless telecommunication system that evolved from the Global Systemfor Mobile Communications (GSM). In UMTS the RAN is referred to as aUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). UTRAN is a RAN thatuses, among other radio access technologies (RAT), wideband codedivision multiple access (WCDMA) for communication between the mobilestation and the terminal Base stations in UMTS are known as NodeB, whichconnect to a radio network controller (RCN) which supervises andcoordinates various activities of the NodeB connected thereto.

In another example, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a wirelesstelecommunication system that evolved from UMTS and utilizes a RAN knownas evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). E-UTRANis a RAN that uses a RAT also known as LTE for communication between themobile station and the terminal In LTE, the base stations, known aseNodeB, are connected directly to the core network rather than to anRNC. In general, in LTE the functions of the RNC are distributed betweenthe eNodeB in the network.

Changes in a wireless environment affect the quality of signalstransmitted and received in the network. Reception power rapidlydecreases in proportion to increasing distance between base stations andterminals. As a result, a wireless communication system may employ arelay node (RN) (standardized for LTE in 3GPP release 10) to expandcoverage and/or improve throughput, quality, etc. The basicfunctionality of the relay node is to wirelessly forward signals to/froma base station from/to a terminal A relay node may perform the same orsimilar functions as a base station except that a relay node typicallydoes not connect to the core network with a cable or microwave link andinstead uses a nearby base station, also known as the donor basestation, to connect to the core network. In 3GPP different types ofrelays have been defined, divided into two main categories. Type 1relays are nontransparent and act as complete individual base stationsfrom the terminal's perspective, while Type 2 relays are transparent andwithout individual base station control signals and identity.

In a wireless telecommunication system the total traffic load for acertain base station mostly depends on two parameters: 1) the totalnumber of connection attempts per time unit, and 2) the total number ofbytes requested to transfer per time unit. When a very large number ofdevices are connected to a network, as will be the case in a networkwith a large amount of machine type communication (MTC) devices, whichare expected to reach several billions of terminals worldwide, controlsignaling to and from each and every terminal will consume a significantamount of network resources and put substantial strain on networkcapacity.

Moreover, wireless telecommunication systems are typically coveragelimited in the so-called uplink direction (i.e., when the terminal istransmitting and the base station is receiving) because of the typicallarge difference in maximum output power between a terminal and basestation. Systems are also capacity limited, mainly in downlink direction(i.e., when the base station is transmitting and the terminal isreceiving), because of all capacity available (e.g., in terms ofbandwidth, transmission time, output power etc.) in downlinktransmissions is shared among all active terminals.

Based on this background, benefits for the network operator both interms of network coverage and capacity may be obtained if the effects ofpower limitation could be reduced.

SUMMARY

The concept of the systems and methods disclosed herein include thecapability for a relay node to wirelessly, without its own backhaul corenetwork connection, act as a coverage extension to the wirelesstelecommunication system. The concept allows the relay node to aggregateand buffer services utilized by one or more terminals. The servicesmight be real time or non-real-time. The relay node could therefore workas a service aggregator, adding together a number of different dataaccess requests from one or more terminals coming into the relay node atapproximately the same time. By aggregating the data requests instead offorwarding each and every data access request individually, the relaynode acts in the macro network, in effect, as a single terminal, whichcontributes to significantly reduced control signaling at the basestation. Under this concept, when the base station receives a requestand responds to the request, the base station acts as if the requestcame from a single terminal, the relay node. This represents significantsavings in overhead in the transmission between the terminals and thebase station. A wireless telecommunication system incorporating thesystems and methods disclosed herein would have a significantly reducedsignaling load in the network.

The systems and methods can be implemented not only for so-calledmachine-type communications as defined by 3GPP, but also for any type ofnon-real-time communication. Moreover, in some cases, the systems andmethods can be implemented for real-time communications. In addition,systems and methods disclosed herein can handle a mix of real time andnon-real-time traffic.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention a terminal in a system foraggregating data transfers in a wireless telecommunications networkincludes a transmitter configured to transmit an uplink signal includinguplink data, and an indication regarding whether the uplink signalcorresponds to a real-time transmission. The terminal further includes areceiver configured to receive a downlink signal corresponding to theuplink signal.

In one embodiment, the indication is configured for a relay node todetermine based on the indication whether the uplink data is to beincluded in an aggregate uplink signal to be transmitted to a basestation, the aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data andadditional uplink data obtained from additional uplink signalstransmitted by devices other than the terminal

In another embodiment, the indication is further configured for therelay node to determine based on the indication whether the uplinksignal is to be transmitted to the base station.

In yet another embodiment, the indication indicates whether the terminalis a machine-type communication device.

In one embodiment, the uplink signal includes the indication.

In another embodiment, the indication is included in an indicationsignal separate from the uplink signal and transmitted by the terminalvia a physical channel selected from the group consisting of PhysicalRandom Access Channel (PRACH), Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH),and Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).

In yet another embodiment, the downlink signal includes downlink dataobtained from an aggregated downlink signal received by the relay nodefrom the base station.

In another aspect of the invention, a relay node for aggregating datatransfers in a wireless telecommunications network includes a receiverconfigured to receive uplink signals from multiple terminals, eachuplink signal including respective uplink data, a decoder operativelyconnected to the receiver and configured to decode the uplink signals toobtain the uplink data, a machine-readable storage medium operativelyconnected to the decoder and configured to store the uplink data, anencoder operatively connected to the machine-readable medium andconfigured to encode an aggregate uplink signal including the uplinkdata obtained from the uplink signals, and a transmitter configured totransmit an uplink transmission of the m aggregate uplink signal to thebase station.

In one embodiment, the receiver or a second receiver in the relay nodeis configured to receive from the multiple terminals indicationsregarding whether respective uplink signals correspond to real-timetransmissions.

In another embodiment, the indications indicate whether a terminal towhich a respective indication corresponds is a machine-typecommunication device.

In yet another embodiment, the relay node includes an aggregation logicconfigured to, based on the indications regarding whether the respectiveuplink signals correspond to real-time transmissions, determine whetherthe respective uplink data is to be included in the aggregate uplinksignal to be transmitted to the base station, or whether the respectiveuplink signals are to be transmitted to the base station.

In one embodiment, where an indication indicates that a respectiveuplink signal is a real-time transmission, the aggregation logic isconfigured to instruct the transmitter to transmit the respective uplinksignal to the base station.

In another embodiment, where the indication indicates that a respectiveuplink signal is not a real-time transmission, the aggregation logic isconfigured to instruct the encoder to encode the aggregate uplink signalincluding the uplink data obtained from the respective uplink signal.

In yet another embodiment, the receiver or another receiver in the relaynode is configured to an aggregate downlink signal from the basestation, the aggregate downlink signal including downlink datacorresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals, the decoder oranother decoder in the relay node is configured to decode the aggregatedownlink signal to obtain the downlink data, the machine-readablestorage medium or another machine-readable storage medium in the relaynode is configured to store the downlink data, the encoder or anotherencoder in the relay node is configured to encode multiple downlinksignals, the multiple downlink signals each including respectivedownlink data corresponding to portions of the downlink data decodedfrom the aggregate downlink signal and corresponding to respective onesof the uplink signals; and the transmitter or another transmitter in therelay node is configured to transmit the multiple downlink signals tothe multiple terminals.

In yet another aspect of the invention, a method for the aggregation ofdata transfers in a wireless telecommunications network includesreceiving uplink transmissions of uplink signals from multipleterminals, each uplink signal including respective uplink data, decodingthe uplink signals to obtain respective uplink data and storing theuplink data, encoding an aggregate uplink signal including the uplinkdata obtained from the uplink signals, and transmitting the aggregateuplink signal to the base station.

In one embodiment, the method includes receiving from the multipleterminals indications regarding whether respective uplink signalscorrespond to real-time transmissions, and, based on the indicationsregarding whether the respective uplink signals correspond to real-timetransmissions, determine whether the respective uplink data is to beincluded in the aggregate uplink signal to be transmitted to the basestation, or whether the respective uplink signals are to be transmittedto the base station.

In another embodiment, the indications indicates whether a respectiveterminal is a machine-type communication device.

In yet another embodiment, where the indication indicates that therespective uplink signal is a real-time transmission, the methodincludes transmitting the respective uplink signal to the base stationwithout including uplink data corresponding to the respective uplinksignal in the aggregate uplink signal.

In one embodiment, where an indication indicates that the respectiveuplink signal is not a real-time transmission, the transmitting theaggregate uplink signal to the base station includes transmitting theaggregate uplink signal including data corresponding to the respectiveuplink signal in the aggregate uplink signal.

In another embodiment, the method includes receiving an aggregatedownlink signal from the base station, the aggregate downlink signalincluding downlink data including data corresponding to respective onesof the uplink signals, decoding the aggregate downlink signal to obtainthe downlink data and storing the downlink data, encoding multipledownlink signals, the multiple downlink signals each includingrespective downlink data corresponding to portions of the downlink datadecoded from the aggregate downlink signal and corresponding torespective ones of the uplink signals, and transmitting the multipledownlink signals to the multiple terminals.

These and further features of the present invention will be apparentwith reference to the following description and attached drawings. Inthe description and drawings, particular embodiments of the inventionhave been disclosed in detail as being indicative of some of the ways inwhich the principles of the invention may be employed, but it isunderstood that the invention is not limited correspondingly in scope.Rather, the invention includes all changes, modifications andequivalents coming within the spirit and terms of the claims appendedhereto.

Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to oneembodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one ormore other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of thefeatures of the other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that the terms “comprises” and “comprising,”when used in this specification, are taken to specify the presence ofstated features, integers, steps or components but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,components or groups thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a radio access network (RAN).

FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram illustrating the aggregation of uplinksignals at a relay node.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of the RAN 12 including anexemplary block diagram of a relay node for aggregating data transfersfrom terminals to base stations in a wireless telecommunicationsnetwork.

FIG. 4 illustrates a logical flow of a method for a relay node toaggregate data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network.

FIG. 5 illustrates a logical flow of a method for a relay node toaggregate data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network.

FIG. 6 illustrates a logical flow of a method for aggregation of datatransfers in a wireless telecommunications network.

FIG. 7 illustrates a detailed block diagram of an exemplary terminal

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

As described in more detail below, the present disclosure providessystems and methods that provide relay nodes with the capability ofacting as an extension of base stations in the wirelesstelecommunication system.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described withreference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used torefer to like elements throughout. It will be understood that thefigures are not necessarily to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a wireless telecommunications network10. The network 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 12. FIG. 1illustrates the RAN 12 as an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio AccessNetwork (EUTRAN), the RAN associated with LTE, as an example. However,the RAN 12 may also be any RAN other than EUTRAN including RAN that arecurrently deployed as well as RAN that are currently in development orthat will be developed in the future. The network 10 includes a corenetwork 19, which includes the parts of the telecommunications network10 that provide the various services to customers who are connected bythe RAN 12.

The RAN 12 includes terminals 14 a-b. The terminals 14 a-b are what inLTE is referred to as user equipment (UE). In wirelesstelecommunications networks other than LTE, including networks that arecurrently deployed as well as networks that are currently in developmentor that will be developed in the future, the terminals may be referredto by terms other than terminals, mobile stations, or user equipment.However, the term terminals as employed herein is intended to includethose terminals in wireless telecommunications networks such as UMTS andLTE as well as networks other than UMTS and LTE, and terminals in yet tobe developed or deployed networks where the terminals have similarfunctionality as the terminals described herein in the context of LTE.

The RAN 12 further includes a base station 16. As discussed above, inLTE the base station 16 is known as eNodeB (evolved NodeB or eNB). Inwireless telecommunications networks other than LTE, including networksthat are currently m deployed as well as networks that are currently indevelopment or that will be developed in the future, the base stationsmay be referred to by terms other than base stations, NodeB, or eNodeB.However, the term base station as employed herein is intended to includethose base stations in wireless telecommunications networks such as UMTSand LTE as well as networks other than UMTS and LTE, and base stationsin yet to be developed or deployed networks where the base stations havesimilar functionality as the base stations described herein in thecontext of LTE.

The RAN 12 also includes relay node 18. The base station 16 communicateswith the relay node 18, and the relay node 18, in turn, communicateswith the terminals 14 a-b using radio access technologies (RAT) via anair interface. In LTE the RAT is known as LTE and the air interface isknown as LTE-Uu. In the illustrated embodiment, the terminals 14 a-b arecurrently connected to the relay node 18. A relay node as disclosedherein includes various entities defined in the 3GPP specificationincluding relays, repeaters, base stations and access points along withfemto or home base stations and other yet-to-be-defined entities thatare not directly coupled to the core network 19, but instead communicatewith the core network 19 via at least one other base station, such asthe relay node 18 which is connected to the core network 19 via the basestation 16. In one embodiment, the relay node 18 node has its ownnetwork ID, its own pilot signals, and so on.

Although RAN 12 has been described as discreetly LTE, in practice, basestations may be multi radio units, capable of transmitting in severaldifferent RAT. Moreover, different cells in the same base station mayoften use more than one frequency band. Due to the reuse ofinfrastructure at the cellular sites, as well as backhaul capabilities,a single base station may be using more than one RAT and may betransmitting at more than one carrier frequency. In addition, althoughthe terminals 14 a-b are illustrated as each connected to a relay node18 and each relay node 18 connected to the base station 16, in practicesome terminals that perhaps are in closer proximity to the base station16 may connect directly to the base station 16 and not connect to arelay node.

In the RAN 12 the terminals 14 a-b transmit uplink signals includingdata. For example, the terminals 14 a-b transmit request signalsrequesting data from the base station 16. In a RAN that does not includerelay nodes the uplink signals transmitted by the terminals 14 a-b wouldbe received by base stations such as the base station 16. However, inRAN 12, the relay node 18 receives the uplink signals from the terminals14 a-b.

Each of the terminals 14 a-b transmits at least one uplink signal andtherefore the relay node 18 receives multiple uplink signals. If themultiple uplink signals received from the same or other terminals arereceived within a short period of time, the multiple uplink signals maybe aggregated into a combined or aggregate uplink signal fortransmission to the base station 16. Upon receiving the multiple uplinksignals from the multiple terminals 14 a-b, the relay node 18 decodesthe uplink signals to obtain the uplink data included in the uplinksignals. The relay node 18 then encodes an aggregate uplink signalincluding the uplink data that was included in the uplink signals fromthe terminals 14 a-b. The relay node 18 transmits the aggregate uplinksignal. The base station 16 receives the aggregate uplink signal fromthe relay node 18. By aggregating the uplink data from the terminals 14a-b instead of forwarding each of the uplink signals individually to thebase station 16, the relay node 18 acts, from the point of view of thebase station 16, as a single terminal, which contributes tosignificantly less control signaling at the base station 16.

Similarly, the relay node 18 receives from the base station 16 anaggregate downlink signal that includes downlink data including datacorresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals, and decodes theaggregate uplink signal to obtain the downlink data. The relay node 18encodes multiple downlink signals, each for transmission to acorresponding terminal 14 a or 14 b. The downlink signals each includesa portion of the downlink data that corresponds to a respective uplinksignal transmitted by the corresponding terminal 14 a or 14 b. The relaynode 18 transmits each of the downlink signals to the correspondingterminals 14 a or 14 b. Thus, when the base station 16 responds to theaggregate uplink signal, the base station 16 responds as if respondingto a single terminal and therefore the corresponding signaling andconnection establishment overhead will be significantly smaller than itwould otherwise be if the base station 16 was to transmit individualresponses to each individual terminal Therefore, the use of the relaynode 18 reduces the total signaling load in the RAN 12.

With this approach the total number of connected terminals can beincreased without the same proportion of additional control signaltraffic generated in the network, and thereby saving operator networkcapacity. Moreover, by utilizing the relay node functionality defined in3GPP the built-in security functionalities such as authentication andauthorization defined for relay nodes in 3GPP securing may be utilizedto enhance security and impede not authorized third parties from gainingaccess to data decoded in the relay node.

FIG. 2 illustrates the aggregation of uplink signals at the relay node18. A first terminal, Terminal A, transmits an uplink signal A and asecond terminal, Terminal B, transmits a second uplink signal B. Each ofthe uplink signals A and B includes a header and a frame check sequence(FCS). If the uplink signals A and B were individually transmitted tothe base station 16, the base station 16 would have to manage two uplinksignals including the overhead associated with the two headers and twoFCS. Instead, the relay node 18 aggregates the uplink data in each ofthe uplink signals A and B. The resulting aggregate uplink signalincludes a single header and a single FCS. The base station 16, whenreceiving the aggregate uplink signal would have to manage a singleuplink signal including reduced overhead associated with a single headerand a single FCS.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of the RAN 12 including anexemplary block diagram of the relay node 18 for aggregating datatransfers from terminals to base stations in a wirelesstelecommunications network.

The relay node 18 includes a receiver 181 that receives uplinktransmissions from the terminals 14 a-b. The receiver 181 is illustratedin FIG. 3 as a discrete receiver. However, the receiver 181 may beimplemented discretely as shown or as part of a transceiver. The relaynode 18 may also include multiple receivers. The uplink signals that thereceiver 181 receives from the terminals 14 a-b include uplink data. Therelay node 18 includes a decoder 182 that decodes the uplink signals toobtain the uplink data and a machine-readable storage medium 183 wherethe decoded uplink data is stored. The relay node 18 further includes anencoder 184 that encodes an aggregate uplink signal that includes theuplink data obtained from the uplink signals from the individualterminals 14 a-b. The relay node 18 also includes a transmitter 185 thattransmits the aggregate uplink signal to the base station 16. Thetransmitter 185 is illustrated in FIG. 3 as a discrete transmitter.However, the transmitter 185 may be implemented discretely as shown oras part of a transceiver. The relay node 18 may also include multipletransmitters.

In one embodiment, in addition to the uplink signals, the receiver 181(or another receiver in the relay node 18) receives from the terminals14 a-b indications regarding whether respective uplink signalscorrespond to real-time transmissions. For example, terminal 14 atransmits an uplink signal corresponding to a telephone call. Inaddition, the terminal 14 a transmits an indication indicating that theuplink signal corresponding to the telephone call is a real-timetransmission. In another example, the terminal 14 a transmits an uplinksignal corresponding to an email. In addition, the terminal 14 atransmits an indication indicating that the uplink signal correspondingto the email is not a real-time transmission. The telephone call isclassified as a real-time transmission because delays in transmission ofuplink signals associated with the telephone call may affect quality ofservice (QoS). In contrast, the email may be classified as anon-real-time transmission because, unlike the telephone call, somedelay in the transmission of the uplink signals associated with theemail will not tangibly affect QoS. Other examples of non-real-timetransmission include background activity in the terminal 14 a or 14 b(e.g., firmware update, maintenance, etc.)

In one embodiment, the indication is an indication bit set in relationto the uplink signal. In one embodiment, a terminal, such as terminals14 a or 14 b, transmits the indication regarding whether a respectiveuplink signal correspond to a real-time transmissions as part of theuplink signal. In another embodiment, the terminal transmits theindication as a discrete indication signal separate from the uplinksignal. In one embodiment, the terminal transmits the indication signalusing a channel between the terminal, 14 a or 14 b, and the relay node18. For example, any one of the physical, transport or logical channelsas specified in the 3GPP specification may be used. In anotherembodiment, the terminal transmits the indication signal using a channelbetween the terminal, 14 a or 14 b, and the relay node 18 that is aphysical, transport or logical channel not currently specified in the3GPP specification.

In one embodiment, the indication is an indication bit set in relationto the terminal In one embodiment, the indication regarding whether acorresponding uplink signal corresponds to a real-time transmissiontakes the form of a signal that indicates whether the correspondingterminal, 14 a or 14 b (the terminal transmitting the correspondinguplink signal), is a machine-type communication (MTC) device. MTC is atype of data communication that includes one or more entities that donot require human interactions. Thus, in general, MTC refers tocommunications used by a machine device instead of a terminal used by ahuman user. The machine device used in the MTC is called an MTC device.Examples of MTC devices include vending machines, vehicle performancetracking devices such as Progressive Insurance's Snapshot, etc. The MTCdevice has features different from that of a typical terminal used by ahuman user. Therefore, a service optimized for the MTC device may differfrom a service optimized for human-to-human communication. Inparticular, a service optimized for human-to-human communication, and inparticular speech communication, may be characterized as real-timecommunication because the connection between the human users requirescontinues or apparently continuous communication to make the interactionbetween the human users utilizing the terminals satisfactory. Asdescribed above, delays in transmission of uplink signals associatedwith the telephone call may affect quality of service (QoS). Incontrast, MTC is often characterized by short, sporadic communicationsthat are non-real-time in nature.

In one embodiment, the relay node 18 includes an aggregation logic 186that makes decisions regarding how to handle the uplink signal from theterminal 14 a or 14 b based on the corresponding indication regardingwhether the respective uplink signal corresponds to a real-timetransmission. For example, based on the indication, the aggregationlogic 186 may determine that the uplink signal is to be decoded and thatthe respective uplink data is to be included in the aggregate uplinksignal to be transmitted to the base station 16. On the other hand,based on the indication, the aggregation logic 186 may determine thatthe respective uplink signal is to be directly transmitted to the basestation 16 without delay (e.g., without being decoded). Moreover,working in conjunction with the relay node controller 188, theaggregation logic controls the receiver 181, decoder 182, storage medium183, encoder 184, and transmitter 185. Therefore, where the indicationregarding whether the respective uplink signal corresponds to areal-time transmission indicates that a respective uplink signal is areal-time transmission the aggregation logic 186 in conjunction with therelay node controller 188 instructs the transmitter 185 to transmit theuplink signal to the base station. Similarly, where the indicationindicates that a respective uplink signal is not a real-timetransmission the aggregation logic 186 in conjunction with the relaynode controller 188 instructs the decoder 182 to decode the uplinksignal, the encoder 184 to encode the aggregate uplink signal includingthe uplink data obtained from the uplink signal, and the transmitter 185to transmit the aggregate uplink signal that includes the uplink dataobtained from the uplink signal.

In another embodiment, the relay node 18 does not receive an indicationregarding whether the respective uplink signal corresponds to areal-time transmission and the aggregation logic 186 makes decisionsregarding how to handle the uplink signal based on data other than anycorresponding indication regarding whether the respective uplink signalcorresponds to a real-time transmission. In yet another embodiment, theaggregation logic 186 makes no decisions regarding how to handle theuplink signals, but instead aggregates uplink data from every uplinksignal received from the terminals 14 a-b into aggregate uplink signalsregardless of whether the respective uplink signal corresponds to areal-time transmission. For example, for voice services such as atelephone call there are fairly stringent maximum delay requirements.However, by aggregating a small number of uplink signals (e.g., every 2voice frames), significant reduction (i.e., 50%) in signaling overheadcan be obtained while minimally degrading voice quality.

In one embodiment, the relay node 18 receives the indication regardingwhether the respective uplink signal corresponds to a real-timetransmission and the aggregation logic 186 makes decisions regarding howto handle the uplink signal based on the indication. However, in thisembodiment, the aggregation logic 186 utilizes the indication todetermine how many frames of the uplink signals to aggregate in theaggregate uplink signal. For example, for non-real-time transmissions,relatively long aggregate uplink signals are possible since delay is notas much of a concern. However, for real-time transmission, relativelyshort aggregate uplink signals are preferred since delay is an importantconcern.

Similar to the uplink described above, in one embodiment (not shown),the receiver 181 (or another receiver in the relay node 18) receives anaggregate downlink signal that includes downlink data from the basestation 16. The decoder 182 (or another decoder in the relay node 18)decodes the aggregate downlink signal to obtain the downlink data, whichmay be stored in the medium 183 or another machine-readable storagemedium in the relay node 18. The encoder 184 (or another encoder in therelay node 18) encodes multiple downlink signals each including downlinkdata. The transmitter 185 (or another transmitter in the relay node 18)transmits the multiple downlink signals to the terminals 14 a and 14 b.

In one embodiment, the downlink data in the aggregate downlink signalreceived from the base station 16 includes data corresponding torespective ones of the uplink signals. For example, where the uplinksignal from a terminal 14 a or 14 b is a request for data to the basestation 16, the downlink data in the aggregate downlink signal includesa response to the request for data in the uplink signal. The aggregatedownlink signal is decoded to obtain the downlink data, which is, inturn, encoded into the multiple downlink signals. Each of the downlinksignals includes a portion of the aggregate downlink signal. Thedownlink signal includes a response to the request for data in thecorresponding uplink signal. For the purpose of correlating uplink anddownlink data in accordance with this embodiment, in one embodiment, therelay node 18 includes an uplink/downlink database 1831 stored in themedium 183.

The uplink/downlink database 1831 keeps track of uplink signals andtheir corresponding uplink data and correlates the uplink data withdownlink data obtained from aggregate downlink signals. In theillustrated example, two uplink signals, one from a terminal Ta andanother from a terminal Tb include uplink data TaUL1 and TbUL1,respectively. The uplink data is encoded into an aggregate uplink signalRNaUL1, which is transmitted to the base station 16. The relay node 18receives an aggregate downlink signal RNaDL1, which includes downlinkdata corresponding to the uplink signals TaUL1 and TbUL1. Theuplink/downlink database 1831 correlates corresponding portions of thedownlink data to the uplink signals TaUL1 and TbUL1. In that way, thesignals TaDL1 and TbDL1 are encoded including downlink data thatcorresponds to the uplink data TaUL1 and TbUL1, respectively. Downlinksignals are encoded and, based on the database information, thecorresponding one of the uplink signals is transmitted to thecorresponding terminal Ta or Tb.

Although the receiving, decoding, encoding, and transmitting associatedwith the relay node 18 has been described herein as taking place insequential order, in practice, these processes are not necessarilysequential and moreover the relay node 18 and particularly the medium183 may act as a buffer to store data until it is time to combine orseparate the data obtained from multiple transmission from the terminals14 a-b or from aggregated transmissions from the base station 16,respectively.

In accordance with the above features, FIGS. 4-6 show flowcharts thatillustrate logical operations to implement exemplary methods for dynamicadaptation of one or more communication parameters for communicationbetween a base station and a terminal in a wireless telecommunicationsnetwork. The exemplary methods may be carried out by executingembodiments of the base stations, terminals, mobile telephones, flashdevices or machine-readable storage media disclosed herein, for example.Thus, the flowcharts of FIGS. 4-6 may be thought of as depicting stepsof a method carried out in the above-disclosed systems or devices byoperation of hardware, software, or combinations thereof. Although FIGS.4-6 show a specific order of executing functional logic blocks, theorder of executing the blocks may be changed relative to the ordershown. Also, two or more blocks shown in succession may be executedconcurrently or with partial concurrence. Certain blocks also may beomitted.

In reference to FIG. 4, logical flow of a method 40 for a relay node toaggregate data transfers from terminals to a base station in a wirelesstelecommunications network includes, at 41, receiving uplink signalsfrom multiple terminals. The uplink signals include uplink data. At 43,the method 40 further includes, aggregating uplink data corresponding tothe uplink signal from one terminal with uplink data from other uplinksignals received from other terminals. At 44, the method 40 includestransmitting the aggregate uplink signal. At 45, the method 40 includesreceiving an aggregate downlink signal (i.e., a response signal) fromthe base station. At 45, the method 40 includes extracting downlink datafrom the aggregate downlink signal, and, at 47, transmitting downlinksignals to the corresponding terminals incorporating respective downlinkdata corresponding to the uplink data that the terminal transmitted.

In reference to FIG. 5, logical flow of a method 50 for a relay node toaggregate data transfers from terminals to a base station in a wirelesstelecommunications network includes, at 51, receiving transmissions ofuplink signals from multiple terminals. The uplink signals includeuplink data. At 52, the method 50 further includes, based on indicationsreceived from the terminals determine whether the respective uplinksignals correspond to real-time transmissions. If a respective uplinksignal corresponds to a real-time transmission, at 53, forward theuplink signal to the base station as is in order to minimize the relaynode forwarding delay. If the respective uplink signal does notcorrespond to a real-time transmission, at 54, aggregate uplink datacorresponding to the uplink signal with uplink data from othernon-real-time uplink signals received from other terminals. At 55, themethod 50 includes, transmitting the aggregate uplink signal. At 56, themethod 50 includes receiving an aggregate downlink signal (i.e., aresponse signal) from the base station. At 57, the method 50 includesextracting downlink data from the aggregate downlink signal, and, at 58,transmitting downlink signals to the corresponding terminalsincorporating respective downlink data corresponding to the uplink datathat the terminal transmitted.

In one embodiment, the aggregating includes decoding the uplink signalsfrom the terminals to obtain the uplink data, storing the uplink data,and encoding an aggregate uplink signal including the stored uplink dataobtained from multiple uplink signals. In one embodiment, the extractingthe downlink data from the aggregate downlink signal includes decodingthe aggregate downlink signal to obtain the downlink data and storingthe downlink data. In one embodiment, the transmitting downlink signalsto the corresponding terminals includes encoding the downlink signals toinclude respective portions of the downlink data decoded from theaggregate downlink signal and corresponding to respective ones of theuplink signals, and transmitting the downlink signals to the terminals.

In reference to FIG. 6, logical flow of a method 60 for aggregation ofdata transfers from terminals to a base station in a wirelesstelecommunications network includes, at 61, transmitting an uplinksignal. The uplink signal includes uplink data. At 62, the method 60further includes, transmitting an indication regarding whether theuplink signal corresponds to a real-time transmission. The indication isconfigured for a relay node to determine based on the indication whetherthe uplink data is to be included in an aggregate uplink signal to betransmitted to a base station, the aggregate uplink signal including theuplink data and additional uplink data obtained from additional uplinksignals transmitted by devices other than the terminal At 63, the method60 includes, receiving from the relay node a downlink signalcorresponding to the uplink signal.

FIG. 7 illustrates a detailed block diagram of an exemplary terminal,which in the illustrated embodiment is represented by the mobile phone100. The phone 100 includes a control circuit 632 that is responsiblefor overall operation of the phone 100. For this purpose, the controlcircuit 632 includes the terminal controller 246 that executes variousapplications, including applications related to or that form part of thephone 100 functioning as a terminal

In one embodiment, functionality of the phone 100 acting as the terminaldescribed above in reference to FIGS. 1-6 are embodied in the form ofexecutable logic (e.g., lines of code, software, or a program) that isstored in the non-transitory computer readable medium 244 (e.g., amemory, a hard drive, etc.) of the phone 100 and is executed by thecontrol circuit 632. The described operations may be thought of as amethod that is carried out by the phone 100. Variations to theillustrated and described techniques are possible and, therefore, thedisclosed embodiments should not be considered the only manner ofcarrying out phone 100 functions.

The phone 100 further includes the GUI 110, which may be coupled to thecontrol circuit 632 by a video circuit 626 that converts video data to avideo signal used to drive the GUI 110. The video circuit 626 mayinclude any appropriate buffers, decoders, video data processors and soforth.

The phone 100 further includes communications circuitry that enables thephone 100 to establish communication connections such as a telephonecall. In the exemplary embodiment, the communications circuitry includesa radio circuit 616. The radio circuit 616 includes one or more radiofrequency transceivers including the receiver 242, the transmitter 243and an antenna assembly (or assemblies). Since the phone 100 is capableof communicating using more than one standard, the radio circuit 616including the receiver 242 and the transmitter 243 represents each radiotransceiver and antenna needed for the various supported connectiontypes. The radio circuit 616 including the receiver 242 and thetransmitter 243 further represents any radio transceivers and antennasused for local wireless communications directly with an electronicdevice, such as over a Bluetooth interface.

The transmitter 243 transmits uplink signals that include uplink data.The receiver 242 receives from the relay node a downlink signalcorresponding to the transmitted uplink signal. The transmitter 243 (oranother transmitter in the phone 100) also transmits an indication, asdescribed above, regarding whether the uplink signal corresponds to areal-time transmission. In one embodiment, the indication is included inthe uplink signal. In another embodiment, the indication is included inan indication signal separate from the uplink signal and transmitted viaa physical channel (e.g., Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH),Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), Physical Uplink Control Channel(PUCCH), etc.)

As indicated, the phone 100 includes the primary control circuit 632that is configured to carry out overall control of the functions andoperations of the phone 100. The terminal controller 246 of the controlcircuit 632 may be a central processing unit (CPU), microcontroller ormicroprocessor. The terminal controller 246 executes code stored in amemory (not shown) within the control circuit 632 and/or in a separatememory, such as the machine-readable storage medium 244, in order tocarry out operation of the phone 100. The machine-readable storagemedium 244 may be, for example, one or more of a buffer, a flash memory,a hard drive, a removable media, a volatile memory, a non-volatilememory, a random access memory (RAM), or other suitable device. In atypical arrangement, the machine-readable storage medium 244 includes anon-volatile memory for long term data storage and a volatile memorythat functions as system memory for the control circuit 632. Themachine-readable storage medium 244 may exchange data with the controlcircuit 632 over a data bus. Accompanying control lines and an addressbus between the machine-readable storage medium 244 and the controlcircuit 632 also may be present. The machine-readable storage medium 244is considered a non-transitory computer readable medium. In oneembodiment, data regarding the indication is stored in themachine-readable storage medium 244.

The phone 100 may further include a sound circuit 621 for processingaudio signals. Coupled to the sound circuit 621 are a speaker 622 and amicrophone 624 that enable a user to listen and speak via the phone 100,and hear sounds generated in connection with other functions of thedevice 100. The sound circuit 621 may include any appropriate buffers,encoders, decoders, amplifiers and so forth.

The phone 100 may further include a keypad 120 that provides for avariety of user input operations as described above in reference toFIG. 1. The phone 100 may further include one or more input/output (I/O)interface(s) 628. The I/O interface(s) 628 may be in the form of typicalelectronic device I/O interfaces and may include one or more electricalconnectors for operatively connecting the phone 100 to another device(e.g., a computer) or an accessory (e.g., a personal handsfree (PHF)device) via a cable. Further, operating power may be received over theI/O interface(s) 628 and power to charge a battery of a power supplyunit (PSU) 631 within the phone 100 may be received over the I/Ointerface(s) 628. The PSU 631 may supply power to operate the phone 100in the absence of an external power source.

The phone 100 also may include various other components. For instance,the imaging element 102 may be present for taking digital picturesand/or movies. Image and/or video files corresponding to the picturesand/or movies may be stored in the machine-readable storage medium 244.As another example, a position data receiver 634, such as a globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver, may be present to assist indetermining the location of the phone 100.

Although the invention has been shown and described with respect tocertain preferred embodiments, it is understood that equivalents andmodifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the readingand understanding of the specification. The present invention includesall such equivalents and modifications, and is limited only by the scopeof the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A terminal in a system for aggregating data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network, the terminal comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit: an uplink signal including uplink data, and an indication regarding whether the uplink signal corresponds to a real-time transmission; and a receiver configured to receive a downlink signal corresponding to the uplink signal.
 2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the indication is configured for a relay node to determine based on the indication whether the uplink data is to be included in an aggregate uplink signal to be transmitted to a base station, the aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data and additional uplink data obtained from additional uplink signals transmitted by devices other than the terminal.
 3. The terminal of claim 2, wherein the indication is further configured for the relay node to determine based on the indication whether the uplink signal is to be transmitted to the base station.
 4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the indication indicates whether the terminal is a machine-type communication device. 25
 5. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the uplink signal includes the indication.
 6. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the indication is included in an indication signal separate from the uplink signal and transmitted by the terminal via a physical channel selected from the group consisting of: an uplink physical channel, Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), and Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).
 7. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the downlink signal includes downlink data obtained from an aggregated downlink signal received by the relay node from the base station.
 8. A relay node for aggregating data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network, the relay node comprising: a receiver configured to receive uplink signals from multiple terminals, each uplink signal including respective uplink data; a decoder operatively connected to the receiver and configured to decode the uplink signals to obtain the uplink data; a machine-readable storage medium operatively connected to the decoder and configured to store the uplink data; an encoder operatively connected to the machine-readable medium and configured to encode an aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data obtained from the uplink signals; and a transmitter configured to transmit an uplink transmission of the aggregate uplink signal to the base station.
 9. The relay node of claim 8, wherein the receiver or a second receiver in the relay node is configured to receive from the multiple terminals indications regarding whether respective uplink signals correspond to real-time transmissions.
 10. The relay node of claim 9, wherein the indications indicate whether a terminal to which a respective indication corresponds is a machine-type communication device.
 11. The relay node of claim 9, comprising: an aggregation logic configured to, based on the indications regarding whether the respective uplink signals correspond to real-time transmissions, determine: whether the respective uplink data is to be included in the aggregate uplink signal to be transmitted to the base station, or whether the respective uplink signals are to be transmitted to the base station.
 12. The relay node of claim 11, wherein where an indication indicates that a respective uplink signal is a real-time transmission the aggregation logic is configured to instruct the transmitter to transmit the respective uplink signal to the base station.
 13. The relay node of claim 11, wherein where the indication indicates that a respective uplink signal is not a real-time transmission the aggregation logic is configured to instruct the encoder to encode the aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data obtained from the respective uplink signal.
 14. The relay node of claim 11, wherein: the receiver or another receiver in the relay node is configured to an aggregate downlink signal from the base station, the aggregate downlink signal including downlink data corresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals; the decoder or another decoder in the relay node is configured to decode the aggregate downlink signal to obtain the downlink data; the machine-readable storage medium or another machine-readable storage medium in the relay node is configured to store the downlink data; the encoder or another encoder in the relay node is configured to encode multiple downlink signals, the multiple downlink signals each including respective downlink data corresponding to portions of the downlink data decoded from the aggregate downlink signal and corresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals; and the transmitter or another transmitter in the relay node is configured to transmit the multiple downlink signals to the multiple terminals.
 15. A method for the aggregation of data transfers in a wireless telecommunications network, the method comprising: receiving uplink transmissions of uplink signals from multiple terminals, each uplink signal including respective uplink data; decoding the uplink signals to obtain respective uplink data and storing the uplink data; encoding an aggregate uplink signal including the uplink data obtained from the uplink signals; and transmitting the aggregate uplink signal to the base station.
 16. The method of claim 15, comprising: receiving from the multiple terminals indications regarding whether respective uplink signals correspond to real-time transmissions; and based on the indications regarding whether the respective uplink signals correspond to real-time transmissions determine: whether the respective uplink data is to be included in the aggregate uplink signal to be transmitted to the base station, or whether the respective uplink signals are to be transmitted to the base station.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indications indicates whether a respective terminal is a machine-type communication device.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein where the indication indicates that the respective uplink signal is a real-time transmission the method includes: transmitting the respective uplink signal to the base station without including uplink data corresponding to the respective uplink signal in the aggregate uplink signal.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein where an indication indicates that the respective uplink signal is not a real-time transmission, the transmitting the aggregate uplink signal to the base station includes: transmitting the aggregate uplink signal including data corresponding to the respective uplink signal in the aggregate uplink signal.
 20. The method of claim 15, the method comprising: receiving an aggregate downlink signal from the base station, the aggregate downlink signal including downlink data including data corresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals; decoding the aggregate downlink signal to obtain the downlink data and storing the downlink data; encoding multiple downlink signals, the multiple downlink signals each including respective downlink data corresponding to portions of the downlink data decoded from the aggregate downlink signal and corresponding to respective ones of the uplink signals; and transmitting the multiple downlink signals to the multiple terminals. 